It’s pretty rare that a musician decides to share his vomit with his adoring fans, but the Black Lips are not your standard garage rock band and Cole Alexander is not your standard guitarist. He suffers from acid reflux and has often decided he should deal with the accompanying symptoms (vomiting) right there, broadcasting the condition, and all its accompanying glory, with the audience.
It adds a GG Allin-inspired spectacle to the group’s live shows and it doesn’t end with upchucking. the Black Lips are committed to rowdy shows where no bodily fluid is left behind. Alexander once briefly got the band banned from the Bowery’s venues for taking a piss while performing. Jared Swilly, the group’s bassist, didn’t think it was that big of a deal because, “really, its just recycled beer.” Apparently it wasn’t, because the ban didn’t last very long.
The Bowery got over it, because these rowdy, anything-goes performances, along with the no-fi musical esthetic teeming with lyrics that fixate and idealize on the banal, crude and everyday sell out shows, and not just in dingy American bars.
In 2012 Black Lips were the first Western act to tour the Middle East since Shakira played the Pyramids in 2007. They visited Egypt in the midst of a revolution, Lebanon, Cyprus, a young Iraqi republic, and the wealthy United Arab Emirates. While the tour wasn’t exactly a financial success, it was a bold and worthwhile experiment, which the band documented in the film, Kids Like You and Me.
Fans can expect the band to promote their most recent album Underneath the Rainbow as well as play perennial favorites such as “Bad Kids,” “O Katrina,” and “Dirty Hands.”
King Khan & BBQ join as support and this will surely be a dynamic addition to the bill as the groups have a storied history together. The acts came together in 2009 to form the psych-gospel sextet, The Almighty Defenders, so fans will be in for quite a few treats.
Tickets are available here for $15. Doors open at 8 PM.
PHOTO: ZACH WOLFE
